Internet Companies Boosting Lobbying Expenditures

Internet giants Google, Facebook and Netflix have posted their highest lobbying expenditures ever in what amounts to an all-out blitz on Capitol Hill to protect their interests.

According to an analysis of lobbying reports by the Center for Responsive Politics, Google has already spent nearly $6 million this year trying to influence members of Congress.

That’s double the amount the company spent on lobbying for all of 2010 and there’s still one more quarter to go in 2011.

The center, meanwhile, reported that Facebook “is on pace to post its first million-dollar lobbying year,” having spent $910 million during the first three quarters of 2011. The figure is more than five times what the company spent during the same period of 2009.

Netflix also reported lobbying expenditures of $325,000 so far this year, which is far less than Google or Facebook, but still 550 percent higher than the company spent from January through September of last year, the center reported.

The center is expected to release other lobbying expenditure information on companies as it completes its research.